A day in the life of a Bread Angel - an introduction to Bread Making Class: 1 February 2017.

The 31st January was a dark and stormy night in Aston – well, alright, there was a light breeze and it was mizzling – when the lights flickered and died. Normally, this is an opportunity for lighting a few candles and sitting in front of the fire, but I had a feeling in my waterworks that I could have a terrifying situation developing if the problem carried on into the morning. I have electric ovens!

Predictably, the lights went poooof around 7am the following morning. Panic set in but I thought that in the past, outages only lasted an hour at most.

My 4 students turned up at 10.30am, Claire the Fairy from Hertford, dedicated dad Olaf from Hitchin and the charming Danica and Walter from Texas – yep, you heard me, Texas. They were on a 10 day trip to the UK and thought a class with a rural artisan baker would be really cool. The kitchen was candlelit to dispel the gloom, which Walther thought was really British and rather medieval – gulp.

I suggested we could carry on with the class, hoping we would have a blast of electricity at some stage soon, or they could have a refund/reschedule, but they all elected to stay and thought it was great fun – gulp again.

I’d tried to retard the dough but my fridge was too small, it was not particularly cold outside, so I just had to watch their lovely dough over-prove and start to flow. Pizza is a tasty break in the course, which they make themselves and everyone loves it, but with no ‘lecky’ this wasn’t going to happen.

My thoughts led to ordering fish and chips, possibly (in a Basil Fawlty flashback) find someone in the village to entertain the students with a flamenco guitar and sing a selection from Oklahoma! This Bread Angel was really winging it

The lights finally came on at 2.11pm, 49 minutes before the end of the class

It was one of the most stressful but hilarious days I’ve had in a long time. Everyone had great stories to tell as we got to know one another. They loved making their dough, despite doubts they would ever eat any bread. They all said it was a fantastic day and had learned so much, despite eating soggy pizza and missing that magic moment when a golden loaf appears from the oven (they all looked a bit ‘beige’).

Olaf said he had got exactly what he wanted from the course, which enabled him to go to the next level in his bread baking adventure – every penny spent was worth it. Claire got the confidence to bake bread at last and sang my praises on Social Media, Danica and Walter – well, they loved every minute and wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Me? I’m suffering from PTSD but, hey, I’m a Bread Angel and my halo will be polished and gleaming for the next class.

So if would like to make a fresh honest bread order or enquire about class availability (with electricity), please call me on 07811 356046 or drop me line at honestbread@astonparishbakery.co.uk as I'd love to hear from you.

Oh and don't forget that tasty bread loves to grow in 220ºc 😀 (although my strapline was temporarily suspended on this occasion).